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New Features Coming For Debian 7.0 "Wheezy"

02-19-2013, 03:30 PM

Phoronix: New Features Coming For Debian 7.0 "Wheezy"

With the recent release of Debian 7.0 Installer Release Candidate, the final release of Debian 7.0 "Wheezy" is effectively on approach. For those not up to speed on this major Linux distribution update, here's a list of some of the top features...

With the recent release of Debian 7.0 Installer Release Candidate, the final release of Debian 7.0 "Wheezy" is effectively on approach. For those not up to speed on this major Linux distribution update, here's a list of some of the top features...

Comment

It's a horrible mess for native users if it forces the native libs to /usr/lib/x86_64-whatever.

I'm not sure if it does, I don't run Debian and their wiki on multiarch is inconclusive.

Joking right? It can't possibly be any more of a horrible mess than cramming ALL 32-bit libraries onto a 64-bit system via a single package...

I've been running Wheezy for a year now, with multiatch enabled. Never had any problems with libraries or library paths. I've even installed a couple of libs from Ubuntu's repos in order to get Steam to work and still had absolutely ZERO problems and ZERO complications. I guess maybe it's only a mess because it's "different".. From what I've heard, the lib paths are much more organized than they were before which would be a reduction in entropy.. ie: The opposite of a mess. It was a lot of work and took a lot of effort to clean up the amd64 architecture and libs to get it where it is now, but it's now at a point where it should have been from the beginning..

I can install wine now and a ton of other 32-bit only applications on Debian amd64 and grab only the 32-bit libs that they actually *need* instead of installing ia32-libs which is a frankenstein of a package. Which is just awesome. It could mean having an operating system that loses a couple hundred megabytes of excess libs that you never use. Which saves you $$$, especially when you're installing to an SSD. It also saves bandwidth.

There is no doubt that Debian knows how to do things the right way.. I've got zsnes (32-bit assembly only) and wine (32-bit only) running on Debian amd64 and it installs just the required libs and nothing else.. No ia32-libs packages needed... Multi-arch rocks.

Comment

It doesn't. Besides, I'm sure the debian guys have thought about this very carefully. Probably more than any other distribution makers.

Thanks, that's what I wanted to know.

@Sidicas

I don't care a hoot about 32-bit, I've been running a pure 64-bit system since 2008 with no issues. No doubt the multiarch dirs are an improvement for those wanting 32-bit on 64; I only said it would be a regression if it also forced native libs to follow the more complicated directory layout.